An American dream, interrupted

In a restaurant at the corner of two streets in New Riegel, the lights are almost out. Only a few bar lamps and stray sunshine illuminate Alex Love, co-owner of Sauced since he and his wife Erin opened it in September 2016, as he describes the decision to close the restaurant permanently at the end of the month. "The loss of three months of business for us has been financially crushing," Love said. "Laws and restrictions were put in place for us to follow, but we just couldn't weather it." Love said he turned down government grants and an Economic Injury Disaster Loan because he and his wife had just finished paying the three loans they already owed regarding the operation and expansion of Sauced. "I'm not going to finish paying the loans I took out to start this place up just to take on more loans now," he said. "These loans are just a bandage anyway. "And the way they're loaning out money now is crazy." Love said he did apply online for a loan through the Small Business Administration when the recovery program was announced by the federal government in March. With only confirmation and reference numbers in hand after the application process, he put it out of his mind for three weeks. One day, he checked Sauced's account and saw there was $8,000 in it that had been deposited by the SBA, with no contract or terms mentioned. His bank had not even been notified of the deposit of the loan funds. "I did some research and saw that the SBA stated they wanted to get the money out as fast as possible, because they knew people really needed it, and that they would 'take care of the rest later,'" he said. "The government doesn't give out free money," he added. "People are getting their stimulus checks and unemployment now, but people are struggling to see the big picture – this is going to ruin our economy, and it won't be us that suffers so much as our kids and grandkids." Love said he was happy to see the $8,000 when received it, but that it wasn't nearly enough to make up for three months of lost revenue. "Honestly, that's only two weeks of payroll and trucks for me," he said. Love has spent the past few weeks at a makeshift desk in a corner of the restaurant, made up of a couple tables and chairs wedged together cluttered with papers and billing statements. He said he's been looking for anything he can do to make Sauced make enough money to stay open. "Honestly I have more stress now, trying to keep the lights on just opening for 12 hours a week, than I ever did when were open full-time," he said. For the rest of June, Sauced will be open for carryout only Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 4-8 p.m. June 28 will be the restaurant's final day of operation. "People ask why the drive-through and carryout didn't work for us like it has for everybody else, but I don't know if it really has worked for everybody else," he said. "As for us, carryout and drive-through made up maybe 18% of our total sales," he said. "The banquet room, which has been closed this whole time, is about 40% of our business, and just the four months in the summer our patio is open gets us 20% of our sales. "Opening up at half-capacity inside just inside productive enough for us to survive," he said. "At some point you have to admit defeat, which has always been hard for me. "But I do still worry what this will do to the town? And what about my staff?" Love said he believes some of the larger issues with the restaurant industry and small, local businesses in general started long before anyone had ever heard of the coronavirus. "People keep saying 'support local,' 'support local' now, but we should've been doing this all along," he said. "Will I pay more at a local place for something than I will at a corporate place? Yes, of course," he said, "but I know the quality's going to be better at my local place, and I know the person I'm giving that money to and I know their family. "When the bailouts come to the bigger corporations, these mom and pop places will keep going out over time and those corporate places will be the only choices we'll have." Love reminisced about one of the things he said Sauced tried to accomplish – an old school dining experience. "People forgot what it's like to go out and dine," he said. "Dining out used to be a whole night. You'd meet a couple at the restaurant and the musicians playing there would know the songs you wanted to hear and you'd spend time at the bar or the patio and at your table, it'd be a three-four hour experience," he said. "We wanted to create that experience here, where people would stay for a while and we wouldn't be rushing people through the phases of their meal." He said Sauced seems to have achieved this goal, because they often received positive comments on the quality of their staff and service. "We always heard people say the service was great here, and I know our people working here always helped to create that dining experience," he said. "I think once we go, and others like us go, too, people will finally realize that they had." Love, his wife Erin and their two youngest kids have lived in Tiffin since 2008 when Love was hired as the chef and general manager at Camden Falls & Reception Center. "I'd worked in restaurants, hotels and banquet halls in Detroit, Florida and Boston, so when I drove down to Tiffin for the first time I was wondering what I was doing here," he laughed. "And they told me I was the 10th chef Camden Falls had had in nine years, so I figured the odds were probably against me. But Love said he cherished the time he worked at Camden Falls, from 2008 until he opened Sauced in September 2016. "I'm really proud of the work I did and the crew I had during those eight years," he said. "I even brought some of those people with me to Sauced when it opened." Love said he has not seen the level of support from the community he and his family have gotten since opening Sauced in his entire thirty year career. "We've always shared our ups and downs with the community," he said. "I share it all on social media, and we always get support through that – even when I lost my father last year, or when we lost one of our employees last summer or even when our grandson was born. The outpouring form the community has always been amazing." Love created a post on Sauced's Facebook page Monday afternoon announcing they would close at the end of the month, and within moments people began responding. As of Tuesday afternoon, Love said the post had received more than 45,000 hits, and it had been shared 447 times. "I knew we needed to tell everyone what we're going through, because there must be so many other businesses going through the exact same thing," he said. He said he already has been contacted by a few friends who own small businesses in the area who told him they are going to make very similar social media posts in the near future. "I think with our story you've really seen the rise and fall of the American dream right here, and there's nothing more I can do about it," he said. "And it's just a sign of what's to come," he said.